Last day of 365

And here we are, the end of 2009. A year ago, I laid out my plan to take at least one photo a day through the year as a means to stimulate the creative process and get back to doing something I loved. At the end of that project, I'd call it a success. I found myself looking at things differently, trying to see if there was a photo there I wanted to hold onto. I took my time a little more, not rushing from point A to point B as much, even telling myself it was OK to be five minutes late if it meant taking a few shots on my way there. And I stayed true to my own few, loose rules: At least one shot, no matter the quality, taken between the hours of midnight and 11:59 p.m. Only once did I miss that window, technically. During a day of organizing the basement, I knew I wanted to document my efforts, and though I figured I'd take a shot of the workbench, I forgot to do it within the 24 hours. Although the physical image was taken the following day, the mental image was in my head within the window. There was also one day when the upload to the computer failed and the images were lost somewhere in between camera and hard drive. So although I took the required photo that day, the image that represents it was taken early the next morning as I left work. So in a way, it still fits, because the day, for me, had not yet ended.

Most of my images from the year were taken with the Canon Powershot point-and-shoot that I bought last December almost exclusively with this project in mind. Although I love the handy P&S for convenience in carrying with me everyday to work, as a result I don't take the time to craft shots the way many of us do with SLRs. So while I won't be making a conscious effort to shoot photos everyday in 2010, I hope that one of the lasting effects from this past year is that I use my SLR a bit more. I also hope to be regularly active with this blog, posting a few times a week, perhaps using weekly photo themes as inspiration. And I'd really like to scan in my film images, so perhaps that will be next year's resolution, at least photo-wise: Scan a group -- a roll, a place, a session, a theme -- per week. We'll see how that goes.

Happy 2010 to all. Time to party.

Day 365 of 365

Snow on The Fens

It wouldn't be New Year's Eve in Boston without snow. It's happened to us the last several years we've come up here to party with my college roommate, our parents, and dozens of friends. Thankfully, this year's burst was compressed to about a three-hour window from the late morning to mid-afternoon, and hopefully we'll have nothing more the rest of the day.

Day 364 of 365

Casey and Cassie

As Casey looked through her newest restaurant cookbook, Cassie made herself comfortable.

Day 363 of 365

We're getting a new streetlight!

Oh, the excitement of Day 363! This was it, as far as unexpected happenings today. Well, I suppose there was the downed wires north of here that delayed Casey's train into the city this morning, so I drove her to Secaucus so that she could get to work on time (or close to it) rather than waiting for the delayed train. And then she got out earlier than expected, but still would've had to wait for the same train back home, departing Hoboken at 10 p.m., so I went back to Secaucus to pick her up. In between, it was a few more errands consisting of an exchange at Staples and some groceries at Whole Foods. Other than that, I stayed inside on this frigid, windy winter day.

Day 362 of 365

Napping with a new friend

Spent the day shopping -- picking up various accessories for Christmas gifts we received, spending gift cards, getting a new cell phone. Ah yes, new phone. I was due for an upgrade and my current phone has a black eye. Well, now it's my previous phone. So by this time, I figured I'd go for the smartphone upgrade. I work for a web company, so having that mobile access does help me with my job. There's no way I'd go to an iPhone, because AT&T's coverage in New York City is horrendous (and their 3G network is not as good as Verizon's; notice that Luke Wilson never mentions "3G" when he's tossing postcards over the map), so I decided to give the Droid a whirl. So far, so good -- after 21 hours.

And so that brings to five the total number of cameras I've used to take pictures this year. There's my Konica-Minolta DSLR, my Canon Powershot used for most pics, my wife's point-and-shoot, my old Samsung and now the new Droid.

Day 361 of 365

Pennsylvania winter road

U.S. 220 near Bedford, Pa., as we made our way home from Johnstown to New Jersey through a Currier and Ives countryside -- red barns and white farmhouses set in a snow-dusted field among the undulating hillsides.

Day 360 of 365

Bedford Springs' indoor pool

After a leisurely, slow morning, we headed out with Casey's dad and stepmom to the step-grandparents' house and on an errand before a trip to Bedford Springs, a hotel and resort in the Pennsylvania countryside. It's a sprawling resort dating back to the 1800s, with the lobby adorned with various artifacts, photos and guest ledgers and records books from past centuries. After lunch, we walked through the lobbies and sitting rooms and ducked into the indoor pool, which was active on a cold, foggy, winter day. It's an interesting scene -- I can't say I've ever been swimming with a Christmas tree on display near the pool.

Day 359 of 365

A wet white Christmas

This is Christmas in Johnstown, 2009: a light freezing rain pelts the windows and forming a crisp coating over the snow in the yard. Luckily, we're comfortable and warm inside, with no place to go all day.

Happy Christmas to all!

Day 358 of 365

Christmas Eve afternoon

We had a bright, sunny day for our drive across Pennsylvania and we arrived in Johnstown to find about eight inches of snow on the ground. A lot of the pine trees still held snow on their boughs, which I found to be unusual a day or so after the storm. Usually the branches have been cleared off by the wind after the first day.

Upon our arrival, we found ourselves in a festive house, the music piped throughout the first floor by speakers in several rooms, Carol and Jim busy in the kitchen preparing for the party that night. We jumped in to help before getting dressed and starting the festivities a little after five. Eight hours later, we turned in, drunk and exhausted.

Day 357 of 365

Park between the candy canes

This house is just a few blocks from another Griswoldian effort in the neighborhood. Imagine if they'd been next-door neighbors. The main difference -- other than the 10-foot candy canes flanking the driveway of this house -- is that this house has a speaker on the lawn playing Christmas music, while the other one has a sign telling drivers to tune their radios to 94.1. That's some dedication right there.

Day 356 of 365

6 o'clock in the market

All of the Christmas decorations at Chelsea Market this year were made from recycled plastic (except for the lights, of course), including CDs cut and arranged into wreaths.

Day 355 of 365

Tree rings

I've always been a bigger fan of multi-colored lights than white ones, particularly for photographs, so I changed this one up by going black and white.

Day 354 of 365

Now that's a wreath!

We're getting down to the final days of the year. I took this shot on my way into work to begin my final week of 2009, a lovely, abbreviated three-day week (Sunday-Tuesday). It was my first day in the city after the snowstorm, and while I missed all the whited-out streets and the Times Square snowball fight, I still found some not-usually-seen shots like this.

Day 353 of 365

Winter still life

Winter came down heavily today. Only two days after I heard we might get some snow this weekend, the flakes started falling lightly around 1 p.m. By 8 o'clock, street lights were obscured behind the white curtain and the roads melded with the curbs, the lawns, the sidewalks.

Every hour or so, Casey or I would peek at the view from a window to monitor the progress. No point in shoveling to keep ahead of it, I thought, because all that work would be erased by morning. Besides, I'm happy to give the two neighbors with snow blowers a chance to go an extra few feet to clear our sidewalks, as they've done in winters past without a request.

Winter has arrived in earnest a few days before it arrives on the calendar. The days may soon start getting longer, but spring has never seemed so far away.

Day 352 of 365

Jefferson Market tower

Just to make sure I see as much of the city at Christmas as I can, I took the PATH to 9th St. instead of Christopher as usual and walked up Greenwich Ave. One of the first things that caught my eye at the corner of 6th Ave. and 9th St. was the shooting stars on the lamp posts along the avenue. The Jefferson Market tower made for a rather obvious framing option.

Day 351 of 365

Buy trees here!

Eight days until Christmas and trees are still lining the sidewalks around New York City. I love it.

Day 350 of 365

Tick-Tock Christmas

After closing down Foley's at 4 a.m., I was left with 90 minutes to kill before the first train back to Clifton. Last year, about eight of us went to breakfast at the Tick-Tock Diner on 8th Ave. and 34th St. This year, everyone shuffled home, weary, so I passed a pleasant hour alone in a booth with a book to read, a notebook to jot thoughts and a plate of mozzarella sticks and a Coke all to myself.

Three guys in a booth I faced chatted up the ladies in a booth next to them. The girls -- I deduced they were Duke students who will be studying in Spain next semester -- were cordial enough to the chatty frattys who kept pestering them with questions.

Day 349 of 365

Streaks in the night

On my way into the city for the company Christmas party, I paused on the overpass while waiting for the train to get some tail lights on the road below, with a house decorated for the holidays in the background, of course.

Day 348 of 365

A little color in a black-and-white night

No adjustments made; that's the way it looked atop a West Village apartment building.

Day 347 of 365

Full-on display

I run by this house often and when I noticed the Christmas decorations up, I made a point to go back at night, with my camera. It was raining steadily tonight, so I didn't get out of my car, but you can see the Griswoldian influence on this one.

So much of the lights blink, including the blue ones dangling from the gutters, and "run," as if they're chasing one another. I wonder what the neighbors think. The lights aren't on all night, but I don't know what time they are turned off.